Wellbeing of Children at Risk: Granparents as Resources

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目的是调查经历不利风险因素的孙辈如何从与祖父母的关系中受益。在这个构想中，祖父母被认为是帮助孙辈适应压力事件的潜在资源，如离婚、单亲、消极的父母依恋风格和行为困难。本研究的目的是为了更好地理解(1)祖父母的情感、注意力和支持的投入如何缓冲家庭破裂和其他压力源对(a)青春期前的孙辈过渡到青春期时的心理、社会和物质福祉的影响，(b)青春期的子女过渡到青年期及以后的影响。(2)在过去四分之一世纪的历史时间里，对孙辈的投资发生了怎样的变化，以及祖父母的参与对今天的孙辈是否比对上一代孙辈更重要。结果包括心理健康，如自尊、抑郁、焦虑、影响平衡和社会经济成就，如职业流动性。这些目标将通过两个纵向数据集来解决，一个是对过去30年调查的多代家庭青少年成员的几组孙辈进行的长期研究（世代纵向研究），另一个是对青少年和更年轻的孙辈及其父母进行的具有全国代表性的5年和14年的纵向研究（全国家庭和家庭调查）。纵向模型将预测未来福祉结果的变化，作为与祖父母关系的性质和家庭压力源/行为风险因素之间相互作用的函数。将对3年、5年和14年的过渡进行分析，以调查祖父母对孙辈的幸福做出的短期和持久的贡献。多元回归和结构方程模型将用于估计这些影响的强度。本研究将通过记录祖父母如何以及以何种效果缓冲社会压力源对孙辈长期福祉的影响，扩展我们对大家庭关系价值的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research is to investigate how grandchildren experiencing adverse risk factors are benefitted by their relations with grandparents. In this formulation, grandparents are considered to be latent resources who help their grandchildren adapt to stressful events such as divorce, single parenting, negative parental attachment styles, and behavioral difficulties. The aims of the research are to better understand (1) how the investment of emotion, attention, and support by grandparents buffers the impact of family disruption and other stressors on the psychological, social, and material well-being of (a) pre-adolescent grandchildren as they make the transition to adolescence, (b) on adolescent children as they make the transition to young adulthood and beyond, and (2) how the investment in grandchildren has changed over the last quarter century of historical time, and whether grandparent involvement is more important to today's grandchildren than it was to an earlier generation of grandchildren. Outcomes include psychological well-being, such as self-esteem, depression, anxiety, affect balance, and socio-economic achievement such as occupational mobility. These aims will be addressed with two longitudinal data sets, one a long-term study of several cohorts of grandchildren taken from adolescent members of multigenerational families surveyed over the last 30 years (the Longitudinal Study of Generations), and the other a nationally representative five- and fourteen- year longitudinal study of adolescent and younger grandchildren and their parents (National Survey of Families and Households). Longitudinal models will predict change in prospective well-being outcomes as a function of the interaction between the nature of relationships with grandparents and family stressors/behavioral risk factors. Transitions over three, five, and fourteen years will be analyzed to investigate the short-term and enduring contributions that grandparents make to the well-being of the grandchildren. Multiple regression and structural equation modeling will be used to estimate the strength of these effects. This research will extend our understanding of the value of extended family relations by documenting how and with what effect grandparents buffer the impact of social stressors on the long-term well-being of grandchildren.